UniFi U7-Pro Access Points - Problems

[mitchell1981]

Hi All,

 

We replaced our ancient WiFi system with new UniFi U7-Pro access points over the summer. The WiFi network has been nothing but trouble ever since. Disconnections half way through streaming, unable to reconnect, roaming working poorly.

 

I was just wondering if anyone is successfully using the U7-Pro in a school without issues?

 

I'm not blaming UniFi in general, as I know that older access points work successfully and I support another school using the U6 without any problems.

 

There are loads of complaints about the U7-Pro on the UniFi forums, but mostly relating to IOT which I don't really care about.

I'm worried we've made an expensive mistake and will have to switch again to a more robust system.

 

(Note we also replaced the infrastructure with UniFi switches, so each AP is getting 2.5Gb, and 20Gb back to the core. The core is still an older HP switch).

[mullet_man]

Are the problems affecting all devices?

 

Only certain types?

 

Could it be a driver issue?

 

Do you have any WiFi 7 devices?

[Chris_Cook]

What version was your previous Wifi? If you weren't using 5 or 6 Ghz bands before, then you might need to look at coverage as these don't go as far as 2.4Ghz. There's a design tool at https://design.ui.com/ that lets you guestimate coverage and ap placement.

 

We had a problem with some Chromebooks where we had to turn off 802.11r roaming support as this caused issues. It does mean roaming isn't smooth, but at least it happens. This was on Cambium with Lenovo flex 5 Chromebooks.

 

The radius is also worth looking at. On our test Unifi ap, having "Radius assigned VLans" turned on meant clients were on VL1 as we weren't pushing out VLans with radius.

[rogerdnixon]

With WiFi there are a lot of variables. We mainly use U6-Pros which have been totally fine - but do have one site that has U7-Pros and they seem fine as well. Things I've found that can drastically improve things:

 

Mount the APs as they are designed to be mounted - U7-Pros are really ceiling mounts - so basically middle of the room typically.

Manually set the channels and powers of all APs - so do this oat at a time after a manual channel scan. Can take a while to do - but worth it.

Make sure the power is set appropriately - less is typically more - especially in more modern steel framed building.

Unless there is a very specific use case for a wide channel - stick to 20/40Mhz

 

Unless you have heaps of WiFi 7 or 6E clients - maybe turn off 6Ghz for now. Might be more trouble than it worth atm.

[ZeroHour]

Unless you have heaps of WiFi 7 or 6E clients - maybe turn off 6Ghz for now. Might be more trouble than it worth atm.

 

Yeah and that will also allow you to use WPA2. WPA3 has had quite a few issues with unifi with sticky clients and all sorts.

[chazzy2501]

You've probably enabled a lot of new Wi-Fi features, that are exposing problematic Wi-Fi cards. I had to replace about 1/3 of my Wi-Fi cards, in my laptops as they had poor connectivity, even next to a new AP.

 

(it was always the azure Wi-Fi modules, the intel ones were fine)

 

My best guess is that the laptops Wi-Fi cards were marginal and would fall over in the new environment (poor throughput but with strong signal, poor upload / download balance, random disconnects) or the cruddy azure drivers got upset with some of the new protocols and bugged out.

[supportman]

We've got a Unify Wi-Fi 7 setup and its working well. We don't use 6ghz and use Enterprise 2 security.

 

Seems to work well.

[mitchell1981]

Hi All,

 

Just wanted to say thanks for the feedback, and apologies for delayed response. Very interesting to read your comments.

 

By way of an update, since the firmware was updated to version: 7.0.95 we have had no complaints about the WiFi at all, so pretty sure our issues were linked to the firmware on the APs. Just curious that other schools were ok before the new firmware was released, but as long as it's working I won't worry too much about that!

 

Going to give it a few weeks, and if no problems, will try WPA3 again.